25 March, the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade for 2010 is being observed under the theme “Expressing Our Freedom Through Culture”. Read the UN Secretary-General's message and find out more about the activities planned at the UN Headquarters to commemorate the event. From UN Pulse: Permanent Link: 25 March - Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

 

AidData is a new way to explore development finance. Our goal is to create a comprehensive and up-to-date data portal that is easy to navigate for users of all stripes.

AidData attempts to capture the universe of development finance, increase the value of data by providing more descriptive information about development activities, provide data in an accessible format, and strengthen efforts to improve donor and recipient strategic planning and coordination. The PLAID Project -- the predecessor to AidData -- benefits from significant support given by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, Richard and Judy Finch, and the National Science Foundation. PLAID is a partnership of the College of William and Mary and Brigham Young University. Its successor, AidData, is a merger of PLAID and the Development Gateway's Accessible Information on Development Activities (AiDA) Additionally, our work would not be possible without the institutional support of the College of William and Mary, Brigham Young University, and the Development Gateway Foundation.

 

The AidData Vision

The AidData team is committed to building an easy-to-use, comprehensive, and timely resource describing the universe of development finance project-by-project, including all grants and loans committed by all major bilateral and multilateral aid donors. We currently have the most comprehensive database on development finance, but have plenty of additional work to do. Better data will help increase aid targeting and coordination, and it will enable better measurement and evaluation of aid effectiveness. AidData is currently developing a publicly-accessible interface that will enable researchers, field workers, and policy makers interested in development finance to access detailed project level data in order to increase transparency, accountability, and effectiveness.

AidData Project Information

The core of the AidData database currently encompasses multilateral and bilateral donor projects spanning the years 1945-2009. It contains information from traditional aid sources such as the OECD's Creditor Reporting System (CRS) as well as donors not captured by the CRS and activities that do not fit the OECD definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA). AidData augments existing data by publishing more complete project descriptions and more detailed aid project purpose codes. In particular, AidData is dedicated to collecting project-level data from all multilateral donors and non-DAC bilateral donors (NDBs) to provide a more complete picture of development finance flows and activities. This resource will allow donor organizations, citizens in donor countries, researchers, NGOs, recipient governments, and, ultimately, the beneficiaries on the ground in developing countries to gain a more detailed understanding of past and present trends in aid.

The Future of AidData

The AidData team at the College of William and Mary and Brigham Young University recently joined forces with Development Gateway to form what is now AidData, a development finance portal that combines the breadth and depth of the PLAID database with the timeliness and accessibility of the Accessible Information on Development Activities (AiDA) project. Over the next two years, AidData will expand to include previously unpublished data from both traditional and new donors. We also intend to classify and publish data on private aid flows as it becomes available. We will develop a variety of data visualization, networking, and mapping tools to allow a variety of different types of users to use this information in their work. AidData increases accessibility to this information for policymakers, NGOs, foundations, partner country officials, researchers, journalists and the public.

Who is AidData?

The AidData team includes scholars in economics, political science, sociology, and computer science, development practitioners, and NGO researchers based out of Development Gateway in Washington, DC, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, and Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. More information is available here.

 

The Fabian Society online archive is maintained by LSE Archives, which is based at the London School of Economics and political Science. It provides free access to an online library of over 580 full text pamphlets, minute books and tracts from the Fabian Society. The items have been published from 1884-1997 and cover a wide range of topics relating to British social, economic and political history. They include: electoral reform; foreign policy (such as colonialism, the Cold War and relations with Europe); industrial relations; the Labour Party; local government; social reform (such as education, health and pensions, the welfare state and eradication of poverty); socialism and women's rights. They include examples of pamphlets by leading socialists such as Richard Titmuss, Peter Townsend, Beatrice Webb, Harold Wilson, Clement Attlee, Tony Benn, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The site also includes information about the copyright and other related collections held by the LSE Archives.

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/fabianarchive/home.aspx

From Intute.ac.uk

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                        http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/blog

 

A sample post :

Is African poverty falling?

Maxim Pinkovskiy and Xavier Sala-i-Martin (PSiM herafter) have confidently claimed that “The conventional wisdom that Africa is not reducing poverty is wrong” and that “African poverty is falling and is falling rapidly.” This sounds like good news. But is it right?

We must first be clear about what we mean when we say “poverty is falling”. What many people mean is falling numbers of poor. However, PSiM refer solely to the poverty rate—the percentage of people who are poor. (There is no mention of this important distinction in their paper.) And it is not falling over their whole period of their analysis, which goes back to 1970. Rather they find that the poverty rate has been falling since the mid-1990s. [19 comments]

 

The Centre for Constitutional Rights grades South Africa's human rights elements, finding that the country's overall performance in human rights is a little above average.

http://us-cdn.creamermedia.co.za/assets/articles/attachments/26630_hr_report_card.pdf

Via Polity.org.za

The new World Bank report on Africa Development Indicators 2010 sheds light on a kind of "quiet corruption" in Africa, which is severely affecting that continent's poor and endagering future development. The report focuses on the way “quiet corruption”, the failure of public servants to deliver goods or services paid for by governments – is pervasive and widespread across Africa and is having a disproportionate effect on the poor, with long-term consequences for development leads to an increasingly negative expectation of service delivery systems, causing families to ignore the system. Access the online indicators database and the read the essay on the key findings of the report. From UN Pulse Permanent Link: Africa Development Indicators 2010

Data Online

Africa Development Indicators 2010

The ADI Data tool is an intuitive environment that allows users to visualize, create, share and embed in a friendly format dynamically generated charts and maps: http://datavis.worldbank.org/

 

 

23-24 March 2010, UN Headquarters, New York The General Assembly, by its decision 64/551 of 23 February 2010, decided to convene its fourth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development on 23 and 24 March 2010 at United Nations Headquarters. Pursuant to resolution 64/194 of 21 December 2009, the Dialogue will focus on the overall theme “The Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development: status of implementation and tasks ahead”. The first day of the Dialogue will consist of plenary meetings chaired by the President of the General Assembly, at which ministers and high-level officials will be able to make formal statements. The second day will be devoted to three interactive multi-stakeholder round tables followed by an informal interactive dialogue with the participation of all relevant stakeholders. The themes of the 3 round tables and the interactive dialogue will be as follows:

• Round table 1: “The reform of the international monetary and financial system and its implications for development”;
• Round table 2: “The impact of the current financial and economic crisis on foreign direct investment and other private flows, external debt and international trade”;
• Round table 3: “The role of financial and technical development cooperation, including innovative sources of development finance, in leveraging the mobilization of domestic and international financial resources for development”;
• Informal interactive dialogue: “The link between financing for development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals: the road to the 2010 high-level event”.

The Dialogue will result in a summary by the President of the General Assembly as an input to the preparation of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on MDGs (New York, 20-22 September 2010).

 

 

Making the MDGs Work Better for Women is a new publication published by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).This publication draws on good practices to elaborate key strategies for accelerating the pace for reaching the MDGs. From UN Pulse. Permanent Link: Making the MDGs Work Better for Women

 This essay, entitled 'Silent and Lethal: How quiet corruption undermines Africa's development efforts', from the World Bank, finds that "quiet corruption" - the failure of public servants to deliver goods or services paid for by governments - is pervasive and widespread across Africa and is having a disproportionate effect on the poor, with long-term consequences for development. http://www.polity.org.za/attachment.php?aa_id=26512

The United Nations Rule of Law Website is a promotional and educational tool for practitioners and the general public. It seeks to inform users about the UN’s work in the field of rule of law, and its efforts to coordinate and strengthen system-wide approaches in this field. It is the central UN rule of law web-based resource, serving as a gateway to the rest of the UN’s related sites, and making information more widely accessible about UN rule of law issues and activities, and the various tools, documents and materials on the subject. The website is also an avenue for users to access other web resources on or related to rule of law, developed by the UN or external organizations.

The website features focus articles that describe UN rule of law engagement in countries, and major developments in the rule of law field. The UN’s approach to the emerging and critical rule of law issues that span the work of the Organization are explained in the crosscutting themes section. The interactive map provides highlights of current UN rule of law activities by region.

A key component of the website is the knowledge resources section. Its main feature is the United Nations Rule of Law Document Repository. The repository comprises core official and unofficial UN rule of law tools and materials: including UN norms and standards, resolutions, reports, guidance materials, training materials, and programming materials, lessons learned and evaluation. Users are also able to access additional practical rule of law resources, such as other databases, jobs, trainings, and practitioner networks.

This section provides an overview of the concept of the rule of law, and a description of the UN’s engagement in this field, including its efforts to ensure coherence and effectiveness of efforts through the Rule of Law Resource and Coordination Group, chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General and supported by the Rule of Law Unit.

The United Nations Rule of Law Website is provided as a service to UN staff and external users. In providing links, the UN does not endorse or represent the statements, advice, guidance and/or opinions expressed therein. Reliance upon any information on this site shall be at the user’s discretion/risk.

The website is maintained by the Rule of Law Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

Thanks to my colleague in the Law Library, Pamela Snyman, for this. 

Over the weekend the Iraqi people have been voting.
Barack Obama hailed it as a milestone for democracy in the area

Human Rights Watch says that while US presidential rhetoric about the promotion of human rights has improved under Barack Obama, the translation of talk into action remains incomplete. From Polity.org.za

http://www.gamesforchange.org/ourwork

The new website Low Carbon World is a joint project between Low Carbon Economy and the United Nation's Climate Neutral Network CN NET in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP.The main aim of this website is to facilitate the move to global low carbon economies by sharing and transfering knowledge and simplify access to information and tools that can be difficult to trace. This is crucial for combating dangerous and escalating climate change. Profile: South Africa

From UN Pulse: Permanent Link: UNEP: A New "Low Carbon World" Website launch     

 

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has issued a flag ship report titled State of World Population 2009: Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate . This report argues that reproductive health care, including family planning, and gender relations could influence the future course of climate change and affect how humanity adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts. The report is also available in Français, Español, Русский, العربية and Chinese.

From Un Pulse: Permanent Link: UNFPA:State of World Population 2009

The World Bank has issued its 2009 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness. The report presents the World Bank’s record of performance in achieving outcomes from its projects and country programs and focuses on the Bank's contributions in supporting environmental sustainability. Visit the website and download the report in full, view the Executive summary, and read about the lessons learned and recommendations and the World Bank performance.                                                             UN Pulse: Permanent Link: 2009 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness

Ebrahim Fakir of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa speaks with Polity's Amy Witherden on the principle, practicality and politics of the nationalisation of mines in South Africa.

Link to video clips on Polity.org.za: 

http://www.polity.org.za/article/debate-on-the-nationalisation-of-mines-should-continue-2010-02-25